Brian Tobin: Proposed laws discourage surrogacy arrangements here

Parents could be left frustrated if surrogates refuse to consent to legal transfer of parentage, writes Brian Tobin

German citizen Margarete holds her baby Josephine in the train station in Kyiv, Ukraine. Josephine was born from a surrogate mother in Kyiv.

The Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill 2022 was recently approved by the Cabinet, and made available to the public on March 10. Part 7 provides for the regulation of non-commercial surrogacy arrangements carried out in Ireland. However, the proposals contained in Part 7 are so complex, restrictive and risk-laden that one might be forgiven for thinking that those who drafted the bill are in fact trying to discourage domestic surrogacy arrangements.

The bill provides for the setting up of an Assisted Human Reproduction Regulatory Authority (AHRRA) that must, among its many functions, approve the parties’ surrogacy agreement before any treatment in a fertility clinic will be permitted.